Aim-listed GoldStone Resources’ efforts over the past few months have brought it to an important turning point in the evolution of the company’s production process, CEO Emma Priestley says in an operational update in relation to mining and production activities at the Homase mine and exploration activities at the former Akrokeri underground mine, both in Ghana.

“Our team has re-engineered the mine and heap leach, focusing on enhancing production efficiencies and supervision to minimize dilution and improve gold recovery. The turnaround supports our previously announced production target for 2022 and will provide a very solid foundation for production growth over the coming years.

Looking forward to the longer-term delivery of our growth objectives, Akrokeri remains a key pillar of our strategy [and] with a drill and trench programme finally under way, we look forward to developing the exploration in the coming weeks,” she adds.

She explains that Akrokeri is a previously producing mine with demarcated targets for future shallow open pit mining, which the company is confident will lead to future growth in production.

Gold production began at Homase this year, with 1 717 troy ounces of gold produced and sold to date, at an average price of $1 907/oz.

Gold loan repayments from the first gold of $1.1-million, through the delivery of 610 troy ounces to Asia Investments Management Services, resulted in the interest rate being taken out of default.

Construction was completed for the initial stage of the mine, which includes crushing, sizing, agglomeration and stacking unit, three heap leach pads, a carbon-in-column plant, and an elution and gold room, for a total investment of $15-million including overheads.

Startup agglomeration issues have now been resolved and gold recovery from the heap leach pads has increased to over 65%, with the latest in situ test work indicating that the leach recovery of 82% will be achieved over a 12-month period.

An additional crushing, agglomeration and stacking circuit is currently being built to improve productivity and heap stacking flexibility, using existing cash resources.

The 2022 production target has been set at about 20 000 oz of gold.

Homase is continuing to progress its capital efficient mine and expects to achieve a cash cost of about $840/oz for the remainder of the year, with an all-in sustaining cost of $970/oz.

Exploration is being ramped up within the Homase and Akrokeri licences.

Diamond drilling is set to begin around Akrokeri during this month.

Grade control drilling is now under way at the third pit along the Homase Trend.